Guest User 7/28/19 Guest User 7/28/19

Lion Heads and Bear Rugs

Video (Bill Grove):
God says, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you. And God has been faithful to me all through my life in that regard. My name is Bill Grove. I’ve been a Christian, officially, for sixty years—seriously, for thirty-five years. In the early seasons of my life, God was faithful. When I was not paying attention, God was faithful, he was right there.

Lloyd Baker
Series: Generational Blessing

Lloyd Baker

Series: Generational Blessing

Video (Bill Grove):

God says, “I’ll never leave you or forsake you. And God has been faithful to me all through my life in that regard. My name is Bill Grove. I’ve been a Christian, officially, for sixty years—seriously, for thirty-five years. In the early seasons of my life, God was faithful. When I was not paying attention, God was faithful, he was right there. He protected me. He kept me out of danger almost as if, “I’ve got you. There’s something else, later, that I have planned for you.”
I was baptized and came to the Lord when I was twelve years old. At the time, there wasn’t a great deal of discipleship done for me in a little, small town in North Carolina. I pretty much lived my life knowing of Jesus, but not knowing him personally for the next twenty five years.
I was employed in North Carolina as a head golf professional at a small, private club. Politics got sideways and I was relieved of my position. My security in life was in that particular job. I can remember going in the shower one night, having lost that job, and having a small family, and I looked up into the ceiling of that shower and I can only remember one verse at that time. Odd, but that’s the way God is sometimes. “I cast all my cares upon you.”
The moment I did that, the power of God fell on me so strong that I fell down in the shower. I wept for, like, thirty minutes. I felt like I was carrying 500 pounds on my shoulders When I finally got off the floor of that shower, I felt like I could lift 500 pounds. That was why the second baptism. I turned my life over to Christ again at 37 years old and started the journey,
From that time forward, God has been faithful to my prayers. Incredible miracles. Incredible testimonies. Incredible experiences with Holy Spirit. Things that make you hunger for more each day.
I think the thing that I would like to pass along to young Christians is, and it’s in the Bible but it’s really expressed succinctly in the Message. The verse is, “Better is one day in his courts than a thousand elsewhere.” One day in his presence. One day following him, is better than a thousand days anywhere else. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Mark Buckley:

Thank you to Bill Grove. He’s an eleven o’clock guy and a wonderful man. We’ve got another wonderful guy here with us today. Lloyd and Judy Baker are here. Lloyd and Judy were sent out from Living Streams 2004. They planted Streams Church on the west side. It’s been an incredible, wonderful, fruitful church. They’ve gotten involves in missions through their daughter in Japan, in Ecuador—all over the place. They’re doing wonderful things for Jesus. I’m really proud to be their friend and I’m really thankful that David invited them back here.

He’s here because he’s got a message about the power of God. The power of a generational blessing is more powerful than any curse, any family tree that’s messed up, anything. It’s all about his grace and he’s chosen us to bless us. Lloyd, come up, preach and thank you for being with us.

Lloyd Baker:

This is my wife, Judy, if you don’t know. How may didn’t know Judy? Is there a couple our there? Yeah. She’s amazing, in case you didn’t know that. Would you agree? Okay, thank you. That’s the right answer.

Thanks, Mark. I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for Pastor Mark believing in us. In 1999 we were attending Living Streams and he came to me and asked if I would be a part of the staff. I just thought I’d never be a senior pastor again. Thank you, Mark. He believed in me. From there I blossomed.

And I was Pastor David’s first boss here at Living Streams. I was the guy that oversaw this guy. We have had this amazing journey together. We really learned to love each other through our diversities, and through that, we became very powerful together.

I’m going to start today by taking about my daughter’s dog. Her name is Brittany. This is her dog. That is a Rhodesian Ridgeback. She graduated from medical school. She had researched dogs and said, “This is the dog I want.” This was part of her present. Rhodesian ridgebacks are a unique dog. They were, I guess created is the right word, in South Africa. When the Europeans went down there, they wanted a dog that would protect their crops and their animals. So they took this wild dog from Rhodesia and brought European dogs and bred them together until they got this perfect dog that hunted in packs. They were bred to hunt in lions. That’s what they were bred for. They’re very relational.

A year ago, at exactly this time, I was in northern Arizona. I love to pick berries. There are some wild, black raspberries in northern Arizona. I’m not going to tell you where they are. But they’re called black caps. It’s the Arkansas in me. I love to pick them and make jams and other things.

I was scouting out a spot and I had Gemma, her dog, with me. She was off leash because she’s trained and sticks next to you. We call her a velcro dog. She likes to be right next to you. And so I’m in shorts because I was just scouting. And I sat down to just pick a couple of berries. And out of the woods stumbles a black bear. I know Chad. Chad, would you mind standing? I’m not saying you’re a bear - a teddy bear, right?

Anyway, a bear came out of the forest right about there. And I turned to grab Gemma. Needless to say, she’s bred to hunt, and she lunges between me and the bear. And then the bear takes off running. Hey, Chad, because you stood up, I have some black raspberry jam. And you get some jam, and you get some jam. I’m just kidding.

So the bear takes off running and Gemma takes off chasing the bear. And they’re both super fast. I’m in shorts and now I’m running through the berry patch and just ripping up my legs. Because if my daughter gets killed by a bear — yeah. So I’m running after the bear and her dog. They’re out of sight but I know the general direction. Finally, I catch up to them, and there’s the dog, looking up a tree. And there’s the bear up in the tree. She treed a bear!

And my daughter is so mad at me. But she brags about that moment to everybody she knows. “This is my lion hunting dog who treed a bear.”

The question I want to pose to you today is, Do you have any stories where you slew a lion? Stories where you killed a bear? Stories that will passed down from generation to generation? Because these stories can bring courage to your children, and bravery to your grandchildren, and tenacity and stamina for generations to come.

Today, in the word, we’re going to learn about how bear rugs and lion heads catapulted a shepherd boy into a king. I spoke this message about seven years ago and Pastor David asked if I would share again with you today.

We’re going to be in 1 Samuel 16. King David is really introduced in the Scripture right about here, Chapter 16, verses 2 and 3.

The Lord said [to Samuel], “Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate.”

So, the prophet, the priest Samuel was supposed to go to Bethlehem and find Jesse’s family. They call Jesse’s family to this special feast. And that place he was going to anoint the new king of Israel. So, I can only imagine that there was a buzz around the house—that all the guys were getting ready. Cleansing themselves, putting on some Old Spice or something like that. And they all showed up to the feast.

And everyone was there, seven of the eight brothers. And David was left behind. He was out tending sheep. He’s out there by himself with the sheep and the goats. He probably was a little disappointed. Maybe he had his little lyre there and he’s singing Country/Western songs to the sheep and the goats. And my guess is he’s depressed. And everybody is there at the feast.

We all hold the life of David in great value, but his parents, his father and his brothers did not. We think he’s a man after God’s own heart. He’s a warrior. But they dismissed him as a snotty, little, younger brother; and not even his dad believed in him.

So, after the meal, all the boys are presented to Samuel. Samuel begins to look at them, and he begins to reject every one of them. He goes through all seven children, and he says, “Is there one left?”

And nobody has brought up David’s name already. So jumping down to verse 11:

So he asked Jesse, “Are these all the sons you have?”
“There is still the youngest,” Jesse answered. “He is tending the sheep.”
Samuel said, “Send for him; we will not sit down until he arrives.”

12 So he sent for him and had him brought in. He was glowing with health and had a fine appearance and handsome features.

Then the Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; this is the one.”

And you would think after that moment that, all of a sudden, his father and his brothers would hold him in high esteem, knowing that he was being anointed. But that’s not the story. They actually had more contempt for him than ever before. He got sent back to the sheep and the goats.

Daddy sends all the boys (Chapter 17), he sends all the boys to the front line to fight the Philistines, except for David. David’s left back and all David is good for is taking some snacks to his brothers. So the story goes on. He takes some Cheez Whiz in one hand and Wheat Things in another, and a couple of Hillshire Farms sausage. In Chapter 17 we see what happens:

17 Now Jesse said to his son David, “Take this ephah of roasted grain and these ten loaves of bread for your brothers and hurry to their camp. 18 Take along these ten cheeses to the commander of their unit.

See? I told you it was cheese and crackers. He takes them there for his brothers.

28 When Eliab, David’s oldest brother, heard him speaking with the men, he burned with anger at him and asked, “Why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness? I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is; you came down only to watch the battle.”…
32 David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.”
33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

No one believes in David after he’s been anointed. Not even Saul, the king, believes in him. But yet, God has anointed him. This is the point. Right? If you’re waiting for affirmation, you’re going to be waiting a long time. Many times the reason people shy away from leadership and acts of bravery and their divine destiny is because they’re waiting for someone to give them affirmation. From your spouse. From your children. From your boss. From your pastor. Some of you are held captive by parents who do not believe in you.

Affirmation is not the point. Anointing is the point. Affirmation is nice, but anointing is irreplaceable. Anointing is the divine knowledge that God has specifically gifted you and called you to a task. And it’s never dependent upon man’s approval. If you’re constantly waiting for affirmation and confirmation, you’re going to spend a lot of time in deliberation and frustration. So lean into your anointing. Accept your divinely appointed task, regardless of affirmation.

I think there are so many ministries in the church that are understaffed because we pause for affirmation. And we’re frozen because of insecurity. So, again, if you’re constantly waiting for affirmation, you’re going to spend a lot of time in deliberation and frustration. So let’s see what happens:

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”
Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”

David had a huge advantage over every other man standing there, facing the battle; because back home, on the mother’s side of the bed, lay a bear rug. And when she woke up in the morning, she stepped out, not on a cold, dirty floor, she stepped out on a bear rug. And when her friends would come over, she would say, “Come here. Look at this bear rug. My son was out tending the sheep—David—and when a bear came, he took his sling shot and struck that bear down and today I walk on a bear rug.”

And every time David walked past their bedroom, he saw a reminder that God rescues and delivers. He had an advantage over everybody else. Over the headboard of his bed was this lion trophy mounted on the wall. So every night before he went to bed and every morning when he woke up, he was reminded that God delivers his people.

He had an advantage. So that moment, when he looked at the Philistine, he had a flash back and he remembered the bear and the lion. He said, “If God will rescue and deliver me from this, he will rescue and deliver me from this giant.” David had a huge advantage. The bear and the lion and Goliath will be the same.

If we never answer the bell for the first round, we will never have the courage for the fifth round. You see, one small victory leads to a larger victory. All to the glory and the power of God. But that power of God was available to every man there. And only the one who had a bear rug and a lion’s head stepped up to the task. Perhaps nobody there had one. And perhaps they didn’t have all these things. So they stood there, frightened. If you don’t take on the bear, you’ll never take on the lion. If you don’t take on the lion, you definitely will never take on the giant.

The story goes on and he does some sort of Braveheart thing where he kills Goliath and he cuts off his head. We won’t go into that part of it. But one thing he does is, he takes the sword and he puts it in the temple of God as a memorial to what God had done for him. I’m not sure I would have done that. I think I would have taken it home and put it over my dining room table and then invited my father and all my brothers to dinner. And I probably would have served something like swordfish and said, “This fish reminds me of the sword that I used.” I don’t know. That’s me. David was a lot more humble. He took it to the house of God as a memorial.

Fast forward years. Davis is about to become king. People are singing songs about him. Saul gets wind of it and Saul’s trying to kill him. So they are chasing after David and he is fleeing for his life. He ends up at the temple and he asks the priest for something to eat for him and his band of men. And he says to the priest, “We need weapons to protect ourselves because we had to run away in haste.” And here’s the conversation between him and the priest. It’s found in 1 Samuel 21:8

8 David asked Ahimelek, “Don’t you have a spear or a sword here? I haven’t brought my sword or any other weapon, because the king’s mission was urgent.”
9 The priest replied, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you killed in the Valley of Elah, is here; it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it; there is no sword here but that one.”
David said, “There is none like it; give it to me.”

He’s fleeing for his life. He’s running. It’s a tough time. It’s a dry time. He ends up there and the priest says, “The only sword I have is this one.” And David flashes back and again and he says, “I remember that sword. There’s no sword like that sword. Give it to me.”

Because he remembers that God is a God who rescues and delivers. And this time, he’s in a tough situation. He says, “But I remember the bear and I remember the lion and I know, because of this sword, it will be okay and God will rescue me.”

Many times God gave the nation of Israel great victories. The Red Sea. Joshua is when they are going into the Promised Land and the same thing sort of happens to them there. So I want to read from Chapter 4:

5 …, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,

So the Jordan River had split. They walked across on dry land. They’re on the other side and this is what Joshua’s telling the people:

…Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future,

[this is really important]

when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

When David becomes king, he keeps up this tradition. Every victory he has, he puts away swords and shields in the temple of God so that the people from generations will know the mighty hand of God.

We’re going to fast forward a couple more years. David is dead. Ahab and Jezebel have now taken over the ruling of Israel. They had actually died. They were ungodly rulers and they brought in all kinds of false gods into Israel. So now there’s a struggle between some of their lineage and the lineage of David. So they begin to kill off all of David’s relatives, so that they would have it, but there’s one left in the civil conflict. His name is Joash. He was a young baby and they hid him in the temple. They took him to the temple and hid him. When he was about seven, the word got out that there was still one left in the lineage of David in the temple. Here’s the story of that in 2 Kings 11. These guys find out and they’re on their way to kill Joash.

9 The commanders of units of a hundred did just as Jehoiada the priest ordered. Each one took his men—those who were going on duty on the Sabbath and those who were going off duty—and came to Jehoiada the priest. 10 Then he gave the commanders the spears and shields that had belonged to King David

So these people are on their way to take this life. And all the priests who are on duty, they call everybody together and he says, “Listen, take all these swords and take all these shields from the victories of David, that God gave to David, this memorial, and now stand guard over this child.”

…The guards, each with weapon in hand, stationed themselves around the king—near the altar and the temple, from the south side to the north side of the temple. 12 Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”

So here’s a seven-year-old surrounded by men who had the treasures of the kingdom of God that David had won in victories. So all these victories—get this—they’re protecting the future of his lineage. David’s lineage was saved because of his past victories.

Our willingness to battle issues fuels the faith of generations to come. Our victories are the stepping stones to their greatness. Joash, at age seven, became king and he ruled for forty years. And he is heralded as one of the outstanding kings of Judah. And I can’t help but think that when he was young, perhaps he was wandering around and saw all these swords and shields. And maybe he asked the question, “What are these about?” And maybe one old priest sat him down and told him all these stories about lions and giants and bears (Oh, my!) Told him the story of every victory. And he knew that he was standing there today because of the victories of his forefathers.

My oldest daughter, Sarah, had diving scholarships. She was a springboard diver. And I forced her to go to colleges to look at them. And every time we went to look at a coillege, she said, “Dad, God called me to Japan.” I remember that day.

Pastor David and I actually led mission trips around the world. We went to South African in 2002. In 2004 we took 42 teenagers to the Czech Republic. I don’t know why we did that. I think we were crazy. But we did.

So she had been around the world. She was touched, but nothing like this. But in 2005 we took a team to do a Young Life camp in Japan. And as we were coming home, on that plane, she broke down, grieving, weeping. I told my wife, “That’s the call of God.”

So we’re looking at colleges and she said, “Dad, you don’t understand. God called me to Japan.”

She left, I think 13 years ago, and she’s never moved back. I remember once I asked her to give her testimony. She said, “I don’t have a testimony, Dad.” I said, “Yeah, you do. You have a father whose step-father beat him. You have a father whose biological father left at 2 and he’s a womanizer. You have a mother who has this faith that she never was fully engaged with her family, and now you live with this heritage of victories of the past. And that’s why you’re here today.”

She was there when Pastor Mark asked us if we would pray about starting a church in the West Valley. He had this vision. I remember the conversation because I told Mark, “Can I just keep my house over here at 32nd Street and Cactus, just in case it fails? I’ll just commute for a year or two.”

And Mark said, “No. You’ve got to live with the people you pastor.”

So we were out there, looking for a house. We finally found the perfect house. We knew the house would be our church office and it would be the youth group meeting place on Tuesday night. We found a model home that would be perfect for us. We thought it was amazing. And the whole family was there, my wife and the girls. We were five thousand dollars short on the down payment, so we were a little disappointed. We got in our car and started to leave. We were a couple of minutes down the road and something just hit me. I drove back and I said to the guy, “If I post date a check for a week, would you give me a week to come up with this money?”

He said, “Yeah, I can do that.”

So we took the plot map and, as a family, my wife and my daughters and I, we walked that property and just prayed and asked for a miracle. I think she was a junior in high school and our other daughter was in eighth grade. Every day they came home—you know, we had a week. And, “Did God give us the money?” I’m like, “Mmmm, not today.” I’m like, why did I do that? I mean, that’s really bold. Day two. Day three. No. No. No. And then, day five, a very good friend of ours from Living Streams took me out for lunch. And he said, “I heard about your house.” And he slid across a check for give thousand dollars and he said, “You guys have been so gracious to my family.”

That day, when they came home, my daughter was there when she saw that miracle, that God provides. So, in her mind, she really thinks that, if you answer the call of God, he always gets your back. See, that’s what she believes. She didn’t give it a second thought.

When you have bear rugs on your floor and lion heads on your wall, giants don’t scare you anymore. Imagine a world where children saw their parents through the power of Jesus Christ confront and conquer nagging sins. Parents confronting the demons of the past, when nobody believed in you, and overcoming by the blood of Jesus Christ. Where children saw their fathers lead them and their families spiritually. Where families let faith, not fear, direct their finances. Where giving to God and the church was not negotiable.

My youngest daughters is a P.A. She went a different route. She went to school and studied. So when she first started getting her paychecks—she makes like twice what I do—she just started tithing automatically. She said to me one day, “Dad, I have no idea why people wouldn’t tithe.” That’s because she lived in a house where we believed that, if you do that, God will just take care of you.

Imagine a world where young people dared to step out and do missions. They saw where their mother shared her faith unashamedly. Where the people on Sunday, that’s the people on Monday through Saturday. Where the word of God was honored over fear of the world. Where every house of every follower of Jesus Christ was full of bear rugs, lion heads and shields.

We have bought the lie that God is more concerned with our comfort than he is our conquering. We have been given an opportunity to build a trophy room for our king, but we must engage. We must give sacrificially. We must serve unconditionally. And we must live for a purpose greater than our own. Because I know that our king is more than worthy.

Talking about my younger daughter, when she was looking at universities, she had this unique privilege. When we were at this one university, we happened to be only a couple of hours away from where I was a teenager in the Ozark mountains in Arkansas. I said, “Let’s go for a drive.” We showed up to this little church called Drakes Creek Regular Primitive Baptist Church. I don’t know if they broke off of the Irregular Baptist Church, but they’re the Irregular Baptist Church.

Anyway, there was somebody there and they opened up the church. She got to see the altar where what should have been became what the Lord wanted in my life. Out in that graveyard, she got to see the gravestone of my stepdad who, after he left us when I was fifteen, he ended up killing himself. And she saw what could have been and the place at that altar, of what became. Because it was at that altar that I committed my life to Jesus Christ. It was at that altar that I answered the call to be a minister. I walked her down to Drakes Creek, to the exact spot where I was water baptized—where the old man was buried and the new man rose. She had this amazing opportunity to see bear rugs and lion heads.

Do your children know your stories? I think that we need to have the stories and I think sometimes we have let the altar go away, for whatever reason. I think there’s power in finding those places, and telling those stories and having those moments, and having a specific spot where you can tell your children, “It was at this moment, at this time, on this date, where this is what the Lord did for me. I want to tell you that story. And I want to tell you this story, and what he provided here, and when he did that.”

Perhaps you’ve never surrendered to the grace of Jesus Christ—you have never made a decision to fully follow him. Let this altar be that altar that you tell your children about. Perhaps you need direction. You feel called, but you’re unsure. Let this altar right here be that altar that you tell your children about. Perhaps there’s a bear directly in your path, and it seems insurmountable. A lion of financial debt. A bear of sickness. A giant of memories of the hurt from abusive situations. Let this altar, today let this altar be the altar that you tell your children about.

We don’t think altars are that important anymore. But you know, when Joshua crossed the Jordan river, he said, “Go back and get stones and build a memorial—an altar for God. So that every time you pass this place and your children ask, you can say, ‘That was the day the Lord delivered us.’”

I’m going to ask you stand with me today and I’m going to pray for you. But then, after I pray for you, this is a moment for you. If you fit any of those categories or anything else, and you say, “There’s just something in my path that seems insurmountable,” I want you to come down to this altar today, and the Lord will just start doing something in your heart.

Lord, I thank you for all the times that I had to stick a bear directly in the face. And by your power, by your grace, you took care of that. Father, thank you that you’re a good father, and that you guide and you lead; and even in the tough times, I can remember all the goodness that you’ve had for me, and I can walk through with faith. Today, help us to have the courage to take up the fight, no matter what that fight is. And I pray that in Jesus’ name. Amen.

©️2019 Living Streams Church
7000 N Central Avenue ∙ Phoenix AZ 85020 ∙ 602-957-7500 ∙ https://www.livingstreams.org

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION® NIV®,
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Guest User 7/21/19 Guest User 7/21/19

Family on Mission

Video (Betsy Butler):
I guess God’s timing is never our timing. I would have healed me way back there But he let it go on, and maybe I needed that. God knows what we need better than we do. My Name is Betsy Butler. I’m 81 years old. As I look back, I can see so man good things God has done in my life.

Gary Kinnaman
Series: Generational Blessing

Video (Betsy Butler):

I guess God’s timing is never our timing. I would have healed me way back there But he let it go on, and maybe I needed that. God knows what we need better than we do. My Name is Betsy Butler. I’m 81 years old. As I look back, I can see so many good things God has done in my life.
The very first, really good thing he did for me was he gave me godly parents. I have very fond, very early memories of my father. On Sunday morning, we would sit on the front porch in a big, old chair and he would read me the funny papers. When we finished the funny papers he would arrange me on his left knee, and on his right knee he would lay out a big, black Bible. He would go from the funny papers to going over and fine-tuning the Sunday school lesson that he would teach to the men and women in our church that morning.
That was the beginning of my learning about God, learning to know who God is, to love him, and especially to love his Scripture. See, God knew that that little girl, three or four years old, sitting on her daddy’s knee, would be teaching that same word of God when she is eighty-one years old.
When I was eleven years old, my father died. I was so mad at God. And out of that anger came rebellion, sadness and loneliness. But life went on and the next really big good thing God did for me was to give me a wonderful husband. And God knew I needed it.
Four years and two babies later into our marriage, we were living what we considered a really good life. We went to church on Sunday, but we were not serious about God. We gave him very little time during the week. So God allowed a reality check to come into our life. I was about twenty-five or twenty-six and I became very sick. I had a sudden, severe onset of rheumatoid arthritis. All of life became a struggle.
My husband, who will forever be my hero, sold everything we had, took his little family to Arizona for a hot, dry climate. When we got here, we found hot and dry, but we found what we really needed, and that was God. God plunked us down into a Spirit-filled Episcopal church that believed strongly in the healing power of God. They prayed for us. They helped us. They did everything they could to encourage our faith. And we began to grow.
In the next few years, we began to study the Bible intensely, as if we thought it might be snatched out of our hands any minute. All the time we were believing that God would heal me and we read scriptures about Jesus healing people over and over. And we thought, why not heal me?
What I was doing became more important than the healing. And so I made a promise to God that no matter whether he healed me or not, I was going to love him, I was going to serve him every day of my life. Down the road, God did heal me through miraculous, divine appointments. I am cured of an incurable disease.
Now, when I look back at my life and I look at those hard years that we went through, I know that Satan was trying to destroy us and to destroy what we had, because that’s what he does best. But the goodness of God is greater than all the evil schemes of Satan.
God is faithful when we are unfaithful. God is good when we’re not so good. He can be depended on.

Ryan Romeo:

Isn’t that great? I love that. It’s funny. I oversee Communications, so I’m always telling the Communications people we’ve got to get things short—you know, we’re in a society where we don’t have much attention span. This is one of those that’s like, “Okay. Just take it easy. Just breathe a little bit. Let’s hear some stories.”

And if you were here last week, we had Jim Watkins. He did the same thing. A flyover of his life and some major points in it. And that really is the heart behind this sermon series Generational Blessing, that we would have cross-generational blessing. For those of us who are a little bit younger in years, that we could glean from those who have been around a lot longer than us.

And that’s our heart, to really honor and love each other in the series. Our prayer really is that Psalm 133, when it says, where unity is God commands a blessing, our prayer really is that God would command that blessing as we unify, not just with a group of people that we connect with, but cross-generationally. That we would really connect with generations that are different from us. That out of that unity we really believe that God’s going to command a blessing on our church.

That’s the series we’re in right now. Generational Blessing. And now it’s my pleasure to introduce our speaker, Gary Kinnaman. Gary started a little church called Word of Grace that eventually became a little church called Hillsong Phoenix here in Phoenix. He’s also been a real great friend to us. He’s an author who’s written a lot of books that are really great. But he’s known Mark Buckley a long time—back when Mark showed up here in Phoenix. So please join me in welcoming Gary Kinnamam.

Gary Kinnaman:

Good morning. So, I’m the old guy, you know. Yep. I’ve been in ministry here for decades. That’s pretty much it. How many of you have family, or you come from a family? That’s great. I want to make sure this is a relevant message.

How many of you have people in your family you just love them to death? How many of you have people in your family you do not love them to death—you pray for them to die? You love them, but you don’t like them. Is that another way to say it? All right. “I love them, but I don’t like them.”

My wife is here. She’s actually sitting through two services, so we’re going to take a special offering for her after this service. She’s right there. My wife, Marilyn. So, I have a family that brought me into the world, and I have a family that I brought into the world. Marilyn and I have been married forty-eight years. We have three children. You can figure out how old I really am. The oldest son turns forty-six in the fall. We have a daughter, forty-three. My oldest son has a full-time ministry in Southern California, in Ventura, and he has three children. You can do some adding here. And then our daughter’s in Denver. She has four children. What was she thinking? And then we have a son who’s thirty-six and he’s got two children. He’s in the Navy, serving God and country in the United States Navy. He’s got a really tough job. He plays the trumpet in the Navy band. What do you think of that?

So let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day, for your presence here in this church. I thank you, Lord, for the friendships that I’ve had here in this place, Mark and Kristina, and so many of the people who have served ministry here and we’ve encouraged each other, we’ve comforted each other. I thank you for David Stockton and the marvelous transition that this church has been experiencing. And it’s growing and people are giving their lives to Jesus. And I pray that, as we talk about family this morning, you will be present with us and show us how amazing, how transcendent family really is for us in all the best times and in all the worst times. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

How many of you have seen this book or read this book? This is for older people. The Purpose Driven Life. Rick Warren—this was his best-selling book. He had a book preceding this called The Purpose Driven Church and now he did this book and this book sold so many copies that he paid back the church for the salary they had given him for twenty-three years. I did some math. I’m a writer and my books haven’t done quite that well. But anyway, I did some calculations and in fact, he made that much money on his book in like three months, ninety days. It’s unbelievable. But they give away an extraordinary amount of money. I think they give away like seventy, eighty, ninety percent of their income. He really is a great Christian leader.

So anyway, I especially like the subtitle. Everybody knows The Purpose Driven Life. Do you know what the subtitle is? What on Earth Am I Doing Here? Why don’t we say that together? What on earth am I doing here? You’ve never asked that question, right? And maybe I love even more the first sentence in the book. What’s the first sentence? “It’s not about you.” I want you to just look at the person next to you and tell them, “It’s not about you.” Some of you have been wanting to say that to your spouse for years. So tell them again, if it felt good. Just say it again. "It’s not about you.” I have a hunch before the day’s over you’re going to say that again. Not for fun.

I’ve come to believe that there are two principle themes in the Bible. We’re addressing one of those themes, but I want you to see it in context. To me, there are two major themes in Scripture that tie everything together. The first theme is community. Family. Or community. Relationships. Where we learn to live with differences. Where we’re loved. Where we love. But where we’re also placed with people that we don’t love. We don’t like them. Community. That’s what develops us as people.

But the community has a purpose and this is the second theme that’s all the way through Scripture. It’s the kingdom. Jesus prayed, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And he begins by saying, “Our Father.” That was novel. That was revolutionary to begin a prayer by saying, “Our Father.” So, it’s about family. But it’s about family with a purpose. And God has a purpose for your family, in your life, and you have a purpose for your family and all the people that are around you.

These are the two major themes. The better witness we are, the more effective we are in expanding the kingdom. God doesn’t just want us to preach at people, he wants us to live out the life that he’s given us. How do we learn life? We learn life in family, for good or for evil.

I’ve done countless weddings. I have forced the couple to say, “For better or worse. For richer or poorer. In sickness or in health, until one of us dies. Until death do us part.” But that’s about how life in family is terribly difficult at times, but it teaches us how to become more like Jesus. Or we can become more like the devil. Both happen.

There are two main themes: community and kingdom. Here’s my message today in a nutshell: You and your extended family—past and present—have a mission. It’s about your family, your extended family, all the people in your family. You know, the immediate family is kind of a myth, because it takes more than two adults to raise one child. We need help. We need the extended family.

My brothers were part of our family growing up. We helped each other with our kids. And right now, my son, David, is in Denver because he wants to spend a lot of time with his brother-in-law, my daughter’s husband. They have two boys who are in their early teens. And they want to spend time with them and nurture them. And sometimes an uncle can do more for a teenager than dad.

There’s this myth that we can just do it alone. But we are a community of people and we need each other. The extended family, past and present, are very powerful. So let’s see how this unfolds in Scripture. I have a bit of my personal theology about the family. Let’s begin in Genesis 2, talking about the creation. This is the creation.

And God said, and I’ve got to pause there and say the Hebrew word for God is Elohim. And that word, oddly, is plural, it really means Gods, and yet the Hebrews were the only ancient people that were monotheistic. The great statement of faith of the Hebrew people is “Hear O Israel for the Lord thy God is one God.” “Hear O Israel for the Lord (Yahweh), thy Elohim (Gods) is one Elohim (Gods).”

And from a Christian perspective we say, “Well, this is telling us about the trinity.” So we look at Genesis 1:26-28

26 Then God [Elohim] said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,

God makes us in his image, in eternal community. God is community and he makes us a community.

…so that they may rule…

There’s the kingdom. So there’s family, community…”so that they may rule.” They need each other to rule because life is difficult.

over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

And I kind of think that implies the serpent. There’s natural domion. There’s also spiritual dominion.

27 So God [Elohim – the Gods] created mankind in his own image,in the image of God [Elohim] he created them; male and female he created them.

He started with two people—very different, and the world’s been a fun place ever since. He didn’t just make Adam. He made Adam and Eve in this creation account. And why? Because that’s essential community. He brings people together who are not the same, but are very different.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number;

That would be family and community.

fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

In the old King James it uses the word kingdom. And we use it in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” And a kingdom is a king’s dominion. The dom comes from dominion. That’s what a kingdom is.

So there’s the creation account. We see this idea of community and kingdom doing things, serving God, representing God together. Then there’s the call of Abram. That was his name before God came to him and renamed him Abraham.

Genesis 12:1-3
The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you;

So there’s this extenderd community.

I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

We are children of Abraham. What does it say? “And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

It’s not about you. It’s about what God wants to do through you. And family is about getting you to that place where you are really trusting God. You understand that life is wonderful. Life is also complicated and sometimes painful and difficult. But you learn about God and his provision and you get into his presence, and then you have something to offer to the people around you.

This is incredible. It’s the promise in the ancient book Genesis that initiates the narrative of human history, especially spiritual history. It’s God’s holy family with a lot of unholy people who become the bearer of his purposes to redeem a fallen world.

Isreal was God’s chosen people, his children, his family chosen for mission. I don’t have any more fear. We sang it over and over. Because I’m a child of God. So God becomes a part of our family. That was always his intention. It’s why Jesus says, “You must be born again.” Because, where you are, your family is dysfunctional and you need some new genes. I call it “re-gene-eration.” You know regeneration. It really means you get new genes. You get the nature of Christ.

I have a number of things to say about this next point. This is my third and main point. I want to talk about the spiritual power of the family and I want to start by talking about this odd little phrase in Exodus: a lamb for a house. Exodus chapter 12.

So now you’ve got Israel and through the story in Genesis, there’s been a famine. And Joseph is in Egypt, and his brothers come to Egypt for food and he’s reunited with his family. They end up there and they become enslaved. So God raises up Moses to lead them out of slavery, through the Red Sea. He parts the sea and we go into the desert. There’s sort of a process of life before we can enter into everything that God has for us. So there’s a wilderness and then we get into the Promised Land. That’s not heaven. That’s finding God in life.

It says this: While the people of Israel are in Egypt, God institutes a very permanent religious ceremony and event.

Exodus 12:3-4
Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor,

What’s the lamb? It’s a symbol of Jesus. And they’re going to execute the lamb and they’re going to take the blood and paint it on the lintel, the top of the door, the panels on the side, because the angel of death is going to go through Egypt—the angel of condemnation and judgment. And when the angel sees the blood, he passes over the house. (That’s why it’s called the Passover.) He doesn’t look inside to see if the family is praying together. Because, you know, “the family that prays together stays together.” They just look for the blood. And, for all we know, there were family arguments going on. But, because they’re under the blood, there was no condemnation.

And it’s a lamb for a house. This is a very powerful image. It’s not individual. Sometimes I grieve the way we do communion. It’s very individual. It’s not really family-oriented. It’s not around a table. Sometimes worship centers have a sign on the door: No food or drink in the auditorium. Well, how do you do communion? Originally, communion was a table. It was a family event. Jesus was with twelve people and he broke the bread and he said, “This is my body.” And then they had dinner together. And after the dinner, he took the cup.

So the Passover is a lamb for a house. Jesus was celebrating the Passover with his disciples. And that weekend he was becoming the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. It’s all so powerful. It gives me chills. I’ve been doing this stuff for years and I still get chills when I talk about this. (Some people would say, “It’s neurological and you need to see a doctor.”)

Anyway—it’s a lamb for a house. And they must share with their neighbors. If the lamb is too much for the house, get a few more people in there.

The spiritual power of family is so clearly stated in the Ten Commandments. For those of you who need a review of the Ten Commandments, I have a list.

The first commandment: No other Gods.

The second commandment: No idols

The third commandment: Don’t take God’s name in vain

The fourth: Sabbath

This is something very few people really know or understand. You have three commandments about God. You have the Sabbath, which takes God to us. And the next six commandments are about our whole life. The Sabbath is about how we have to bring the God that we love and serve and submit to into all of these different areas of life—from family to possessions to shopping. There’s a commandment about shopping. It’s the last one: Thou shalt not covet. And that’s what you do when you go to the mall. You don’t buy anything You just go to see what you might want. Just to ruin your day.

The fifth: Family

That’s the first one because everything starts in family: good, bad, wonder, evil, abuse. It all starts in family. So you’ve got to first bring God into that part of your life. What does this say?

Exodus 20:12
Honor your father and your mother as the Lord your God has commanded you, [This is the only commandment with a promise.] so that you may live long and so that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.

This is awesome. It’s the first commandment. It’s about family. If you don’t get it right there, you’re going to take all that crap—excuse me, I’m only here maybe once in every two years—you’ve got to take that into all your other relationships: what happens in your family, and how you deal with it.

God says that, “If you honor your father and your mother, you’re going to live long and I’m going to bless you.”

I’m sure there are many people in here who have no interest whatsoever in honoring their father and their mother. Because their father was abusive, or their mother was abusive, or they got divorced. Or maybe you don’t even know who your father is.—you never met your father. Or maybe you were adopted and there’s always that shadow: “Who am I, really?”

It’s okay to ask those questions, because family is such an important part of the plan of God. I call it transcendent. It’s not just about human stuff that they can figure out with a theory of evolution. It’s a transcendence. You feel it when you go to a wedding. When two people get married you feel the presence of God. It’s human, but it’s not just human. There’s something spiritual happening here.

I’ve got a friend who does pre-marriage counseling in the Catholic Church, he and his wife. I had breakfast with him a a few days ago and he was talking about how this works out. He said, “You know, people come and want to be married in the church, even though they have no relationship with God. And maybe they have some history of being Catholic, and they bring their boyfriend or their girlfriend and they want to be married in the church.” Why? Because marriage is about God.

So, the Ten Commandments. “Honor your father and your mother.” It doesn’t say “like them,” or “spend time with them until you need to see a therapist and take medication.” You honor them because you wouldn’t be here if they hadn’t sort of got together, if you know what I mean. You wouldn’t be here. And so, you have to see the origin of your life as something that’s planned by God.

I’m going to go into this pretty deeply when I talk about my family tree and Jesus’ family tree. Look what it says: So you honor your father and your mother and the power of family—families are for the lonely. So God’s plan is to place people into families when they don’t have a family. That’s what the church is about. The church is the family of God. So the writer says:

Psalm 68:5-6
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

I like the way it’s translated in the Message. Not quite as religious.

Psalm 68:5-6 (MSG)
Father of orphans, champion of widows, is God in his holy house. God makes homes for the homeless, leads prisoners to freedom, but leaves rebels to rot in hell.

Nobody said “Amen.” Some of you wanted people in your life to rot in hell, okay? Because they’ve put you through hell. Let’s get realistic here. This isn’t just about punishing bad people and getting even. The fact is, rebels rot in hell because hell is the absence of God. The more you do life on your own, as a rebel, the more you will have hell in your life. You need God and you need your family, all the people you love and the ones you don’t like. You have to see the plan of God in that.

When Paul talks about the body of Christ in 1 Corinthians, he talks about members of the body need each other. The eye can’t say to the ear, “I don’t need you.” How many of you have said that about some other person in your life? “I don’t need that person in my life!” But Paul says “God has placed all the members of the body right where he wanted them to be.”

And that’s about relationships. Paul’s talking about relationships. So I can say the same thing about family. My son in-law discovered this. When you get married, you don’t just marry your spouse, you marry her family—all of them. The good ones. The dysfunctional ones. It’s not an accident. Human life isn’t random.

The next reason why families are so spiritually powerful—I don’t know totally what this means, so I’m just going to let David explain this when he gets home. You show him this verse and say, “Would you explain this? Because Pastor Gary just read it and didn’t explain it.”

The spiritual power of families is crazy-amazing. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:12-14:

… If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, [if she’s willing to put up with his religion] he must not divorce her. And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.

But look at this. This is so transcendent. I can’t fully explain it, but I know it’s a lamb for a house.

For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.

It’s a lamb for a house, even if people in that house are not believers. But if you are the only believer in the house, you are the hope of that home. This is incredible. The children are made holy, the unbelieving partner is made holy. It’s incredible. I can’t explain it. I’m going to let David Stockton explain how that works. You say, “You mean, they’re all going to heaven?” I don’t know. I just know what the Bible says here.

The family is a church in miniature. Paul says “the man will leave his father and mother,” he quotes Genesis, “and cleave to his wife and the two will become one flesh.”

And he says right after that, “I’m speaking about Christ and the Church.” That a marriage is a symbol of Jesus and his bride, the Church. This, to me, is why weddings are so holy. I always talk about this at weddings. “If you feel religious right now, or spiritual, it’s because this beautiful, perfect couple is the best they’re going to look in their whole life.” It’s a picture of God in us.

I want to read something to you. This is going to blow you away, some of you:

The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church. It is a community of faith, hope and charity. It assumes singular importance in the church, as is evident in the New Testament. The Christian family is a communion of persons, a sign and image of the communion of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. [We talked about that from Genesis, right?] In the procreation and education of children, it reflects the Father’s work of creation. It is called to partake in the prayer and sacrifices of Christ. Daily prayer and the wording of the word of God strengthen it in charity. [This is where we learn how to live out the fruit of the Spirit.] The Christian family has an evangelizing and missionary task. —Catechism of the Catholic Church

This statement is from the Catholic catechism. It couldn’t be worded more powerfully.

So, this from my catechism—I wrote one, too.

The family and the church family are places that God has created where we learn to live with differences. Learn love and grace in conflict. We find our future together. The church becomes our family when we’re born again. It’s a place where we learn to love one another and the world around us, and are nurtured to serve one another and advance the kingdom of God.

Now I want to talk about beyond the immediate family: genealogy. Where you come from will determine who you are. If you’re adopted, if you don’t know who your parents are, if you are perfect (which is never the case), it helps you find your future. I want to show you a picture here. This is a picture of the stairway of my daughter’s house. When you walk in to the house, there’s a living room to the right and dining room behind the living room. There’s a stairway to the second floor. I gave her most of these pictures, but she collected some of them as well. At the very bottom is a picture of my mother and dad getting married. As you make a turn on the landing is a picture of my wife and me getting married. And a picture of her husband’s dad and mom getting married. It all culminates in these two couples who end up bringing Jeff and Sherry together in marriage, who now have four children.

The next slide is just my family. The bottom picture is my mom and dad getting married and my grandfather is doing the wedding. Then there’s a picture of my grandfather and his wife, Theodore and Dorothea. It goes all the way up there. I have the marriage certificate from my great-grandfather Kinnaman. They were married in the late 1800’s. And I have a love letter that he wrote to my great-grandmother (neither of whom I ever knew).

I look at those pictures and I never am at Sherry’s house without standing in front of those pictures. And I think to myself, all these people fell in love and they had sex. And here I am. It’s like God had to do a lot of work to get to me. And those people weren’t thinking about me, the next generation. They weren’t thinking about me sharing God’s word with you. But God was thinking about that. I’m not an accident.

A lot of things have happened in my family. Terrible, bad, they appear to be accidents; but nothing is an accident in God’s plan. This tells me two things. God is in control. Is he in control when bad things happen? “Well, I don’t know.” If that really troubles you, I have a Bible verse for you:

Romans 8:28 (ESV) And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

If you think your life is random, or it’s just an accident—people did stupid things and you’re just a victim: All things work together for good for those who love God. So whatever happens, somehow God fixes it.

While I’m freaking you all out—how does the New Testament begin? It begins with a chapter on the genealogy of Jesus. It is a happy, dysfunctional genealogy. There are all kinds of famous people in there, but it doesn’t pull any punches. One thing is that there are four women in the genealogy and nobody ever did that at that time. Gals, sorry to say that. Women were never mentioned. But it’s not just four women, it’s four women who have unique stories.

The first woman that is mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew Chapter 1 is Rahab. Does anyone know what her profession was? She was a gentile and she was a prostitute. And she was in the genealogy of Jesus.

And then the next woman that is mentioned is Tamar. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. That sounds really regal and awesome. Jesus—he’s the lion in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He’s the Lion of Judah. So Judah begat Perez (he’s the first hispanic in the Bible). Judah begat Perez by Tamar. Tamar wasn’t his wife. Tamar was his daughter-in-law. It was incest. I won’t tell you the whole story. I wish I had time, but I’ve ruined so much of your day already. Judah had Perez. (Twins. I can’t remember the other name, I think it was an Irish name.) Anyway—by Tamar, who was his daughter-in-law. And that’s in the genealogy of Jesus.

Then it says David begat Solomon and it doesn’t mention Bathseba’s name. It says, “David begat Solomon by the wife of Uriah.” That’s how it’s in the genealogy.

And the last woman was Ruth, who was a Moabite. She was a lovely, holy woman. But she was a Moabite. She was a gentile. And so, they’re telling the whole world that Jesus had gentile blood.

Who is in your genealogy? What kind of nasty, evil, weird, wonderful people are in your genealogy? It took God a lot of work to get to you. How did God get to His Son, who was promised in the Garden of Eden? He went through a whole series of human relationships, who didn’t know that they were in this chain of life that was going to lead to the birth of the Messiah.

Of course, God corrected some of that when it was the Holy Ghost who came on Mary. He gave Jesus the nature of God himself. He ended up with two genealogies.

But this is so powerful. I’ll say it again: God is in control. When you think he isn’t, at least you have the promise: All things work together for good.

When terrible things happen to us and we start saying we’re a victim, we’re really denying that God’s in control. Or we’re denying that, whatever happens to us, there are some things that God can’t fix. You’re a miracle!

My fifth point here is the Communion of the Saints. It’s in the Apostles Creed. It doesn’t mean what you think it means, that the communion of the saints is that we’re in church together. Let me explain what it means. The Communion of the Saints in the Apostles Creed:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day, he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, where he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church and the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

What is the communion of the saints? In Latin, it’s communio sanctorum. It refers to persons. It is the spiritual union of the members of the Christian church, living and dead. It’s not just living people gathering together, it is the fact that everybody in your genealogy is still alive. They’re just not alive here. I’ve said a lot of stuff to put you into a tumble. This is really freaky. They’re here with us. They’re what the Bible calls the “great cloud of witnesses.” Catholics pray to the saints, It’s not my thing. I’m not Catholic. I’ve mentioned them a couple of times. They pray to the saints. They acknowledge the saints. They have a sense that the saints are living with them. And they’re much better about keeping this “great cloud of witnesses” in their faith and reality and practice.

Look at Hebrews 12:1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, [that would be all the amazing faith people in Hebrews 11, or in your genealogy] let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,

I have family in heaven. I wish I had time to tell you how they still impact my life. My mother. My grandfather, who was a pastor. My great-grandfather, who was a pastor, came to America as a missionary, a German immigrant. They still speak to me. I don’t know. Are they watching? If I played football, I know they’d be watching me play football. It’s what they do.

I want to wrap this up with a story. I want to show you a picture here of family. This is my wife’s sister, Annette and her husband, Jeff. They’ve been married fifteen years. She’s never had children. He had a daughter from a first marriage, who committed suicide. They’ve had a lot of pain in their life. They live down in Saddlebrook near Tucson. But for most of their life, they lived in Escondido, where my wife was born. My mother-in-law adopted Annette. She was an RN who worked at a little clinic in Escondido. A nineteen-year-old woman came in. She didn’t have an abortion, she had the baby. And Marilyn’s family adopted that baby, and that’s Annette.

Annette has always wondered where she really came from. She’s had 23 and Me, but she had not been able to find her real family. She didn’t know if wanted to. She felt rejection. “My mother didn’t want me. Why should I be interested in knowing about her?” She’s 63 years old and she still brings it up. So her husband, who’s sort of compulsive, and I call him a sleuth. Last weekend he went online for about three hours and he found her mother! Next picture: The woman in the middle is my wife’s adopted sister’s birth mother. And that’s her husband on the other side. And that’s her son-in-law, and that’s Marilyn’s sister’s birth sister. They have the same father! She got pregnant out of wedlock, and this is the way it was in the early 50’s. They sent her to California to have the baby. She came back and nine months later they got married. And they had three more daughters.

My sister-in-law, Annette, has been on the phone all week, every day, talking to this sister in Michigan. And they’re laughing and they’re crying. What’s up with that? It’s family! It is the power of family! I can’t explain it. I say to young women who are expecting, I say two things (I love to say this): “Right now, you love that baby. You can’t wait for it to be born. But when you’ve had that baby in your arms, you will not be able to describe how much you love that child.”

You hold a child and there’s a bonding that takes place. In fact, Annette’s birth mother was not allowed to hold the child. She had the child and the child was taken out of the room.

There’s a bonding. How do you explain that? How many of you love your children? How many of you love your children more than you love the neighbor’s children? How many of you love your children more than you love the neighbor’s children, even though the neighbors have better children? What’s up with that? This is transcendent.

There are two things I say to young women. “You’ve not going to believe how much you love that child. You’re also not going to believe how difficult it is to raise that child from the colic to hormones.”

I said this to my daughter-in-law, and you can tell I’m kind of sideways. And she had her first baby, and she’s nursing little Oliver. They thought it was going to be a girl. She had all girl stuff. Some mistake with the ultrasound. She had a boy. We were outside the delivery room. There was screaming and yelling, they were saying, “Oh my God!” And they didn’t have a name for him for about three days. The hospital said, “We can’t let you go home unless you name this child.”

So she’s nursing little Oliver. And I said to her, “Do you hear that sucking sound? It’s going to last at least twenty years! You have no idea how much work this child’s going to be. And this child will not appreciate you until this child has children.”

Which has led me to believe that this is a promise in God’s word for grandparents:

Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. I will repay.

Could you lift your hands to the Lord? And could you say this prayer with me?

Heavenly Father, you had to do a lot of work to get to me, but you gave me life through my mother and father, and I’m grateful. I’m a miracle! And I believe, Lord, that you are in control. I belong to you. I’m not only a child of my mother and father, but I’m one of your children, and I say, ‘Hallelujah and Amen.’”